Don Mischer obit

Don Mischer Dies: Renowned TV Director-Producer Of Oscars, Emmys, Super Bowl & Olympics Was 85

 

He was not on the list.

Don Mischer, one of the preeminent live event directors of the past six decades, died peacefully in his sleep last night, April 11, in Los Angeles. The 15-time Emmy winner was 85.

Mischer did not stop working until the end and passed away just as he was finally planning to retire for good.

“I want you to know that, after more than six decades in television, I will be doing my last show tomorrow on Saturday, April 5th here in Los Angeles,” he told Deadline last week. “I started at the PBS station in Austin at the University of Texas campus in 1963, and I turned 85 last week. Man, it feels like time has just flown by.”

Mischer’s final show was the 2025 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony, hosted by James Corden, which took place at Barker Hangar Santa Monica with tech titans and A-list celebrity attending and Katy Perry among those performing. The ceremony, nicknamed the Oscars of Science, is streaming on YouTube today. You can watch it here.

Mischer’s live television career is unparalleled and features directing and producing just about every major event, including two Academy Awards, 15 Emmy ceremonies, multiple Kennedy Center Honors, People’s Choice Awards and Breakthrough Prize Ceremonies, the annual 9/11 memorials at Ground Zero in New York as well as numerous other specials, with his directing credits exceeding 100.

His extensive resume includes the Opening Ceremonies of both the 1996 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics; the Super Bowl Halftime Shows with Michael Jackson, Prince, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen; the Obama Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial where 750,000 gathered on the National Mall; Motown 25; the Democratic National Convention; and Carnegie Hall: Live at 100.

In 2023, Mischer published his autobiography, :10 Seconds To Air: My Life In The Director’s Chair, in which he shared the stories behind some of the most iconic TV moments that he helmed, including Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean performance on the Motown 25 special and Prince’s Super Bowl half-time performance in the pouring rain. He also wrote about working with Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra and other legends.

In an interview with Deadline’s Pete Hammond at the launch of the book, Mischer, a University of Texas at Austin graduate with a Bachelor and Master of Art degrees, shared how he fell in live with live TV.

“I was 9 years old when television came to my hometown, which was San Antonio, Texas, and I remember going to the very first (TV show),” he recalled. “I was in a big gym, and on the floor, there were cameras, lights, booms, and mariachi bands, and square dancers, and country bands, and all of this. The entire basketball court was ringed with monitors so we could sit in the stands, see it happening live on the floor, and see it on television. And it planted the seed, I became infatuated with television.”

Mischer relished the unpredictable, high-risk nature of big live television events.

“There is no feeling like counting down the final seconds to a live broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games, knowing that 80% of the planet will be watching it live and you have only one shot to pull it off,” he said. “There are no retakes. No fixes. No editing. And watching it will be a huge stadium of people, heads of state, the world press, and nearly every pair of eyes in the world, and it’s over in a flash. This is the thrill and challenge live television.”

Mischer won 15 Emmy Awards (including 13 Primetime Emmys), a record 10 DGA Awards, a Peabody, two NAACP Image Awards, the 2012 Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the PGA, and the 2019 DGA Lifetime Achievement Award for Television, along with a slew of other accolades. In 2014, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“It’s been quite a personal journey for me from the very beginning of television in 1949 – from Super Bowl halftimes with Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, The Stones, Prince (in the rain), and  Bruce Springsteen; to Olympic Opening Ceremonies; Carnegie Hall’s 100th Anniversary and Obama’s Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial,” Mischer wrote Deadline last week. “And from the Oscars; to The Kennedy Center Honors and  Muhammad Ali’s lighting the Olympic Cauldron) and in Atlanta. But now Mother Nature is telling me to slow down!”

He never got to do that, dying just days later.

As a producer/director, his credits include the Oscars, We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center Honors, the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall, Motown 25, the Super Bowl Halftime Shows (Michael Jackson, Prince, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen), the Democratic National Convention, and the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics and 2002 Winter Olympics. Mischer also produced specials with Beyoncé, U2, Prince, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Sting, Garth Brooks, Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Yo Yo Ma, and Dolly Parton among others.

Mischer is survived by his wife Suzan, his four children, Heather, Jennifer, Charlie and Lily, as well as two grandchildren, Everly and Tallulah.

Selected television credits

Year     Show            Role            Awards

1970–1971            Great American Dream Machine – PBS            Director          

1973–1975            In Concert – ABC            Director          

1976    Twyla Tharp: Making Television Dance – PBS            Director          

1978–1986            The Kennedy Center Honors – CBS            Director           3 Primetime Emmy Awards, 3 Directors Guild Awards

1978            Omnibus: Meryl Streep – ABC            Director          

1981    Goldie & Lisa Together – CBS            Producer / director     

1982    Shirley McLlain Illusions – NBC            Producer / director            Directors Guild Award

1982            Baryshnikov in Hollywood – CBS            Director           2 Primetime Emmy nominations

1983            Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever – NBC            Producer / director            Primetime Emmy Award, Peabody Award, Director's Guild Award

1984            Baryshnikov by Tharp – Great Performances PBS            Producer / director            Primetime Emmy Award, Director's Guild Award (with co Director Twayla Thwarp)

1985            Motown Returns to The Apollo – NBC            Producer / director            Primetime Emmy Award, Emmy nomination, Director's Guild Award

1985            Carnegie Hall: Grand Reopening – CBS            Producer        

1987    The Tony Awards – CBS            Executive producer            Primetime Emmy Award

1988    The Tony Awards – CBS            Executive producer            Primetime Emmy nomination

1988    Irving Berlin's 100th Birthday at Carnegie Hall – CBS            Executive producer            Primetime Emmy Award

1989    The Tony Awards – CBS            Executive producer            Primetime Emmy Award

1989    Willie Nelson: Texas Style – CBS            Producer, director, writer  

1991            Gregory Hines: Tap Dance in America – Great Performances PBS            Producer / director            Primetime Emmy Award, Directors Guild Award

1991            Carnegie Hall Live at 100 – PBS            Executive producer            Emmy nomination

1992–2005            The Kennedy Center Honors – CBS            Producer         2 Primetime Emmy Awards

1992    Bob Hope: The First 90 Years – NBC            Producer         Emmy Award

1993    Michael Jackson Super Bowl 27 Halftime – NBC            Producer / director     

1996    Atlanta Cenntenial Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies – Worldwide Feed            Producer / director            Emmy Award, Directors Guild Award

1998            Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson – CBS            Producer / director            Emmy nomination

1998    To Life: Israel's 50th Anniversary Celebration – ABC            Producer        

1999    Sonny + Cher: Cher Remembers – CBS            Producer / director     

2000    Barbra Streisand: Timeless – FOX            Producer / director            Directors Guild Award Nomination (with c/o director Barbra Streisand)

2002    Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies – Worldworld Feed            Executive producer            Academy of Television Arts and Sciences National Sports Emmy Award

2004            Democratic National Convention 2004            Producer        

2005    Paul McCartney Super Bowl 39 Halftime – FOX            Producer / director     

2006    Rolling Stones Super Bowl 40 Halftime- ABC            Producer / director     

2007    James Taylor: One Man Band – PBS            Producer / director            Emmy nomination

2007            Shanghai Special Olympics – CCTV, BBC            Producer        

2007    Prince Super Bowl 41 Halftime – CBS            Producer / director            Emmy nomination

2007    Movies Rock – CBS            Executive producer / director           

2008    Tom Petty Super Bowl 42 Halftime – NBC            Executive producer / director           

2008    Fashion Rocks            Producer + Director   

2009    We Are One: Obama Inaugural Concert at The Lincoln Memorial – HBO            Producer / director            Directors Guild Award

2009            Springsteen Super Bowl 43 Halftime – NBC            Executive producer / director            Emmy nomination

2011–2013            Billboard Music Awards – ABC            Executive producer     

2011    The 83rd Oscars            Producer / director            Emmy nomination

2012–2019            The Breakthrough Prize – FOX, NatGeo            Producer / director     

2012    The 84th Oscars            Producer / director            Emmy nomination

2012    One Night Only: Eddie Murphy – SPIKE            Producer / director     

2013    The 85th Oscars            Director           Emmy nomination

2014    One Night Only: Don Rickles – SPIKE            Producer        

2014    9/11 Memorial Museum Dedication            Producer / director     

2016    Jazz at The White House – ABC            Producer / director     

2016    Taking The Stage: African American Music and Stories that Changed America – ABC            Executive producer / writer  

Multiple years            Emmy Awards – ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX            Executive producer